This afternoon, the famous Apple Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released a new report about the Apple Watch Series 7.
The famous analyst said that the market is worried that the Apple Watch S7 won’t be released and mass-produced in September due to production issues. Assembly line manufacturers are also facing a lack of shipments. In addition, Apple Watch business revenue is also lower than expected.
Ming-Chi Kuo further revealed that the latest investigation has pointed out that Apple has solved the quality problems with panel modules. Luxshare Precision will supply them, and the company is currently increasing and replicating the production lines.
The mass shipments are expected to start in mid-to-late September. The report also predicted that the Apple Watch Series 7 and Apple Watch shipments will significantly increase to 14 to 16 million units (40 to 45 million units in 2021).
Some key points from Ming-Chi Kuo’s report are mentioned below:
- The main highlight and selling point of the new Apple Watch Series 7 would be its significant design change. The Watch Series 7 will feature a flat body design and narrow edge design for the first time.
- Apple has introduced new production procedures for the new design. The Watch Series 7 will use the OLED G6 Production line (it was OLED G4.5 in the previous Watch series). The panel module has also been changed to a contact design instead of a cable design. In addition, it will use the low injection pressure over-molding (LIPO) process for the first time.
- The new OLED G6 production line improves productivity and further reduces panel costs. In contrast, the new contact design and LIPO process also improve product durability.
- In the production process (mentioned above), the key manufacturers are the following: LGD (exclusive panel supplier), Young Poong (panel soft board supplier), and Jabil (panel module supplier).
- Due to adopting many new production procedures for the panel, the previously mass-produced panel module of Apple Watch Series 7 encountered reliability problems (in the previous testing phase), including panel flickering, insensitive touch, and many other problems. This complex production problem may be related to LGD, Jabil, or Young Poong.
- Apple has also achieved the best product configuration through different designs of experiments (DOE) on the panel module side and further adjusted the verification standards on the panel side and the assembly side, which has solved the reliability problem of the panel module.
- The report predicts that Jabil will begin the mass production of Watch Series 7 panel modules in mid-September. Terminal products will begin mass shipments in late September if this time is confirmed.
